Archive for the ‘Audit Quality’ Category

Auditing Standard 5: How Now, Brown Cow?

By Francine • Oct 3rd, 2009

On September 24, 2009 the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board issued a report on the first year of implementation of Auditing Standard No. 5. There’s something negative to say about each of the components reviewed.

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@Going Concern “Can I Have Your Autograph?”

By Francine • Sep 30th, 2009

My new post is up @Going Concern.

“The PCAOB approved Auditing Standard No. 7, Engagement Quality Review on July 28, 2009. They also issued a Concept Release on requiring the engagement partner to sign the audit report.  The comment period closed September 11th and boy oh boy were there a lot of comments. The firms came [...]

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FEI Lists The Top Challenges for 2009 – An Interview With James Abel

By Francine • Dec 17th, 2008

Financial Executives International has just released the results of their survey, “2009 Top Challenges for Financial Executives,” and it’s quite interesting to see what a difference a year makes.

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PCAOB – Seeing The Big 4 Through Rose Colored Glasses

By Francine • Dec 12th, 2008

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the AICPA National Conference on PCAOB and SEC Developments  in person.  As much as I would have loved to be there live, to ask questions and, perhaps, walk all over the wafflers with my Manolos, it’s not always possible.  In this case it may have been just as well. [...]

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Hedge Funds And Their Auditors – It’s Good To Be Aggressive

By Francine • Nov 11th, 2008

Every once and a while someone asks me,
“fm, how do you keep up with all the news, the stories?  How do you know all this stuff?”
Well…Although I have been accused of conceit, presumption, being “too smart,” being too quick to draw conclusions, painting a whole firm black on very little basis, precociousness, general egotistical behavior [...]

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Deloitte – Tolerant And Forgiving of Bad Accountants

By Francine • Nov 10th, 2008

It’s been an interesting few days.  I’ve finally stopped receiving poison pen letters from PwC apologists because of my doubts about their bandwith and qualifications for the TARP work.  All last week I pondered the implications of the Deloitte insider trading scandal before events overtook me and I finally had to post something more than [...]

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What The Auditors Saw – An Update on Société Générale

By Francine • Oct 14th, 2008

Prentice: It’s a fascinating theory, sir, and cleverly put together. Does it tie in with known facts?Rance: That need not cause us undue anxiety. Civilizations have been founded and maintained on theories which refused to obey fact.“What The Butler Saw”Joe Orton, 1969

Kerviel’s lawyers question Société Générale accountants
PARIS: Jérôme Kerviel, blamed by Société Générale for the [...]

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Arthur Levitt – Looking Down From The Mountain

By Francine • Jun 9th, 2008

Arthur Levitt recently gave an interview in a Dutch publication de Accountant.  Accountancy Age in the UK highlights some key quotes and provides a link to the full article in English.  

Levitt comments about the potential need for “audit-only” firms and his encouragement of, “…greater transparency, to understand what condition a firm is in. We [...]

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Approved! All Together Now – EY To Be One Firm (Except US, Of Course)

By Francine • Jun 3rd, 2008

Ernst & Young Completes Groundbreaking Globalization Move
EY Partners Overwhelmingly Approve the Creation of EMEIA
LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Ernst & Young today announces that its partners across Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa have overwhelmingly approved the proposed integration of its country practices into a single EMEIA Area.
The new Area will be a US$11 billion [...]

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More On The CAQ Survey

By Francine • Apr 11th, 2008

…The CAQ sits at the same point on the Disraeli scale as any other lobbying organizations who conciously produce data that they intend to be mistaken for information. But, there should be an important difference: the CAQ is controlled by audit firms who, according to the “P” in “CPA”, purport to be ethically bound [...]

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